Friday, January 25, 2008

The linked article got me thinking about the ol' "Stubby fingers" problem. So I wrapped my head around some potential moiety grabbers and came up with this neat-o porphyrin and carbon nanotube based device. Several points: this ring is from chlorophyll so it has an Mg core atom, the linked article used Zn and of course, hemoglobin uses Fe. Which points out the range of tools that switching a single atom can produce. Porphyrin have the added benefit of their optical and electrical properties which I figure means they can be charged optically and quenched electrically (via metallic nanotube) so as to open or close them, respectively. This device could easily be mounted on one of the newer nanotube-tipped electron microscopes.

Once more, thanks and credit for Nanorex's fine Nanoengineer-1 software.